The Sea Cleaners

9 million tons of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year, corresponding to about 300kg per second. The consequences are devastating for the environment and for the people, damaging both economy and health. The major reason is the total or partial absence of plastic waste management from the source mainly by populations living either by the sea or rivers.

Yvan Bourgnon decided to take action. He created the association The Sea Cleaners and designed a new generation boat capable of recovering plastic with the objective of recovering waste near the coast during its first year in the ocean before its disintegrates or sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

The Manta will use state-of-the-art tools to remove the floating plastic macro-waste before they get degraded and they irreversibly pollute marine biodiversity. For this purpose, a real factory will be on board to collect, sort, compact and store plastic waste.

The propulsion of the boat will focus on minimizing its carbon footprint on the ocean. Solar panels on the boat are spread over a total area of 2000 m2. The solar-powered vessel is a veritable floating processing plant. It can sort and compact large plastic waste before bringing it back to shore for recycling.

Three collecting treadmills will be installed between the hulls of the ship to quickly pull up big quantities of plastics. The Manta will be able to store more than 250 tons of waste in its hulls before repatriating them on the land, where they will be supported by adapted recycling centers.

Yvan Bourgnon

Born on July 6, 1971 in Switzerland. His love affair with the sea dates from his earliest childhood. At the age of 8, he sailed around the world with his parents for four years and decided a few years later to live his passion: navigation.

A high-level sportsman and a modern day Adventurer, Yvan is now dedicated to protecting the oceans by having invented the first deep-sea sailing boat capable of collecting plastic waste with his association: The Sea Cleaners.